Abstract
Background: Longitudinal studies of drinking behavior have reported inconsistent changes in drinking behavior as people age. Thus, this study aims to characterize the changes in drinking behavior among Korean adults and to reveal differences in their demographics, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Methods: This study used the Korea Welfare Panel Study data over nine years (2009 to 2017), analyzing a total of 7506 participants. Growth mixture modeling was applied to classify patterns of change in drinking in these participants. The χ2 test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the differences in demographics, depression, and suicidal thoughts according to patterns of change in drinking. Results: Changes in drinking among Korean adults were categorized into four types: “high-risk retention”, “medium-risk to high-risk”, “high-risk to low-risk”, and “low-risk retention”. Gender, age, education, marital status, living arrangement, living area, and depression differed among these groups. Conclusion: We identified four types of changes in adult drinking behavior in South Korea, which varied in their demographics and depression levels. These results suggest that tailoring interventions to the type of behavioral changes might be more useful than batch interventions.
Highlights
Alcohol use disorder is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, and is known to be associated with about 3.3 million deaths worldwide annually [1]
While longitudinal approaches to drinking research can overcome the limitations of cross-sectional research, cross-sectional studies have the limitation of reporting inconsistent changes in drinking patterns
This study explores differences in demographics, depression, and suicidal thoughts according to the type of change in drinking behavior
Summary
Alcohol use disorder is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, and is known to be associated with about 3.3 million deaths worldwide annually [1]. South Korea’s lifetime prevalence of alcohol use disorder was the highest of all surveyed mental illnesses, and 58.3% of adult drinkers were high-risk drinkers [5]. To this end, many studies on the scale and severity of alcohol abuse in South Korea have been conducted, and there has been an increasing trend toward longitudinal studies investigating abuse in recent years [6,7,8]. Conclusion: We identified four types of changes in adult drinking behavior in South Korea, which varied in their demographics and depression levels These results suggest that tailoring interventions to the type of behavioral changes might be more useful than batch interventions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
